Tag: RESEARCH

Researchers in Germany have developed a new endoscopic camera that's cheap enough to be thrown away after each use, and small enough to see eye-to-eye with a grain of rice. Designed at Germany's Fraunhofer Institute for Reliability and Microintegration, the prototype's camera is just one cubic millimeter in size, and features a resolution of 62,500 pixels. But researchers say it's still ...

IP addresses may help identify the source of anonymous and malicious e-mails, but they can only tell authorities where the message originated, without providing many details on the individual who authored them. Using some pretty innovative analytics, researchers at Concordia University have just come up with a new technique that could help investigators determine the precise identity of these ...

A Japanese researcher has created a robot that is designed to treat depression in seniors with dementia. Masayoshi Kano's Babyloid, which was inspired by the looks of a baby beluga whale, measuers 17 inches long and weighs about five pounds. It can move its stubby arms, round head, thin mouth and beady eyes while making baby noises. The bot's faces features LEDs that help to mimic human ...

Researchers at Harvard University and MIT have developed a handheld scanner that can detect potential cancer cells and diagnose them with an iPhone app -- all in about an hour. According to Physorg, the scanner uses antibodies and magnetic particles to identify suspicious lumps. But rather than biopsy the entire mass, the scanner, which costs just $200 to create, extracts cells from all over ...

A new study from the National Institutes of Health suggests that using cell phones can change the way our brains behave, though it remains unclear whether these changes can be harmful. The study, published yesterday in the Journal of the American Medical Association, found that just 50 minutes of cell phone use can noticeably speed up brain activity in the region closest to the phone's antenna. ...

An artificial retina designed to help some blind people regain their sight has already paid dividends for a few patients. Developed by the U.S. company Second Sight, the Argus II is an implant that can be surgically inserted into a patient's eye. A small camera attached to the patient's glasses captures images, and transmits them to a small wireless computer. The computer processes the images, ...

Detecting potential skin cancer cells is an inexact process that depends on a doctor identifying a suspicious mole before waiting a few weeks for the biopsy results to come back from a lab. But according to Technology Review, scientists at the British Columbia Cancer Agency (BBCA) have developed a handheld wand that could help doctors instantly identify melanoma by scanning the molecular makeup of ...

British researchers plan to launch a cell phone into space later this year, using the device to control a satellite and take pictures of Earth. We've seen some guys send an Android phone 70,000-feet into the air on a weather balloon, but this would mark the first time a cell phone has ventured beyond the exosphere. According to BBC News, the team from Surrey Satellite Technology Limited (SSTL) ...

While surgical robots are much more precise than clunky human hands, the surgeons who use these devices aren't able to guide the 'bots with their natural sense of touch, and this can make it easier to bump into a delicate organ or artery. In response to this problem, some graduate engineering students at the University of Washington recently developed an Xbox 360 Kinect hack, which uses the ...

Researchers at Northwestern University have created a robot that mimics the movements of a knifefish, a creature that deftly swishes its lone fin in a ribbon-like motion to swim vertically. According to Fast Company, professor Malcolm MacIver noticed the curious way in which a knifefish he had in his aquarium tank would shoot upward. After studying the fish, MacIver and his colleagues discovered ...

A Pennsylvania woman could soon face criminal charges for conducting online research while serving as a juror in a murder trial. The woman, Gretchen Black, reportedly consulted the Web to find out more about the injuries the victim had suffered, and offered to share her findings with the rest of the jury. At the time, the jury had already determined that the defendant was not guilty of ...

Despite stern warnings from flight attendants and pilots, we've always wondered if our iPods or cell phones could really cause an airplane's electronics to go haywire. According to a recent article in The New York Times, personal electronic devices don't always interfere with a plane's electronics -- but sometimes they do, or can, cause problems. Clear as mud, right? Bill Strauss, an engineer ...

Share Got Facebook on the brain? It could be because Facebook is your brain. Sort of. That's what Carnegie Mellon neurology researcher Alison Barth claims in a new study published in the December 22nd issue of a journal called Neuron. As LiveScience explains, Barth and her team of researchers arrived at their conclusion after identifying and observing a small group of highly active neurons in ...

The Middle East may be once again on the brink of ornithological warfare, now that Saudi Arabian officials have detained an Israeli bird suspected of espionage. The bird was first spotted in a rural area of the country, wearing a transmitter and a leg bracelet that read 'Tel Aviv University.' Officials promptly took the creature into custody, and accused it of being a Mossad spy. Its tag would ...

Share Do you open your laptop as soon as you wake up? Do you sneak out of the office to tweet from your smartphone? Do you get the shakes if you go several hours without visiting Switched? If so, you're not alone, because, according to a new study, we're all physically addicted to the meth of new media. The study, titled 'Unplugged,' was undertaken by the University of Maryland's International ...